XREAL CEO Chi Xu was asked if and when it is possible to get the capabilities of Meta Orion or Apple Vision Pro in a glasses form factor at a much more affordable price. He answered that you will see that very soon. However, he put that into perspective, stating that they are aiming for 80% of the Apple Vision Pro experience while keeping costs under 20% in terms of weight, price, and ease of use. The 80% refers to having significantly fewer sensors and compute power to deliver a similar experience, which requires much optimization and the removal of non-essential features. This will happen within the next two years. Xreal already has a prototype and is waiting for the right moment to mass-produce it and introduce it to the market, pending the development of Android XR and a robust ecosystem that includes native AR apps. On the other hand, wireless AR glasses will take more time, potentially 3 to 5 years, due to the need for further optimization and likely partnerships with Qualcomm.
Sigh. More overhyping from XREAL. It’s okay to say it’s going to take a long time to get there. They should stop publicly stating impossible goals.
What do you think is missing? I guess the ‘80%’ is very subjective.
In 2 years, XREAL will at best release a product with a 50-60 degree field of view, a low opacity of content, and tracking quality plus processing power much lower than a Vision Pro. Quest 3 is maybe 70-80% of the way to a Vision Pro, so they need to match a Quest 3 in a glasses form factor.
The Xreal One Pro already has a 57 degree field of view. So, it’s really not 60 degrees FOV at best; I would say 60 degrees at worst. Otherwise, I agree that compelling full AR glasses are many years away.
Maybe they’ll get up to 62 or 63, who knows, but birdbath optics in a glasses form factor have inherently very low limits. They are probably right up against them right now. They could achieve more with waveguides, but that seems impossible in 2 years. In 5 years, maybe, but I don’t think XREAL has the capability to pursue waveguides this decade—it’s too complex and expensive for them.
I don’t think that it can be directly compared as you did. They put Orion and AVP on the same level when they asked the question, and Orion is very different when it comes to display. XREAL is already moving away from birdbath optics with the new glasses. The next generation of their optics after this one might allow for a big enough field of view with a small enough display panel, intended for indoor AR devices. Regarding tracking quality, I would assume that this will be handled by Android XR.
XREAL is already moving away from birdbath optics with the new glasses. To waveguides?
Not what we typically call waveguides, but the ‘Optic Engine 4.0’ is not birdbath optics.
What’s preventing them from doing some of it today with the Ultra? The Nreal Light had a start on it 4-5 years ago. They have some history with augmented hand tracking control; why not develop on the Ultra model and step into it now?
They just released One and One Pro with new optics.